The drama comes as Manly had three valuable employees quit over the past few days, frustrated at the bickering and lack of leadership.

Dave Warwick, coaching and development manager, has left for Canterbury, Alicia Keogh, events and game-day operations manager, has joined the RAS Showgrounds while Jessica Ivers, the club's digital media manager, also resigned.

Manly staff members are stunned at how little time rookie COO David Perry spends at the club's Narrabeen base.

It seems Perry spends much of his time working at Penn's North Sydney offices - angering Quantum.

One well-placed staff member said: "It would be nice to see him every now and then."

Penn Sport has constantly said it would remain with Manly "long-term" but a $5.5 million offer - more than double what Penn Sports originally paid to buy into Manly - may tempt the company to walk away from Brookvale.

There were suggestions Quantum wanted to oust Penn as chairman but that would require a 6-1 vote and Penn Sports have two votes at board level.

But the two votes are not enough for the Penns with rival shareholders Quantum Energy, Manly's football club and Manly Leagues club "ganging-up" with their combined five votes to defeat the Penns on many issues, including the sacking of Peters.